


Everything's Coming Up Roses

by entirely_too_tall



Series: NurseyDex Week 2017 [4]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, floral summer dress, in a thrift shop, on sale!, that's it that's the whole fic, which they try on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-03 04:32:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11524617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/entirely_too_tall/pseuds/entirely_too_tall
Summary: “Why am I here again?” Dex whines at the campus thrift shop, unhappy to be dragged all the way here from the library for an “emergency”, which simply turned out to be Nursey ripping his pants and needing to buy new ones.“Leggings are pants, right?” Nursey deliberates on a few leggings before picking out two to try, and then moves on to browse dresses.Dresses! What is Nursey going to do with dresses? Dex is getting annoyed.





	Everything's Coming Up Roses

**Author's Note:**

> Day 4 theme: Gender/Sexuality Headcanons
> 
> Find the event and themes [here](https://nurseydexweek.tumblr.com/post/162330031741/nurseydex-week-2017-july-16-22).
> 
> Check Please and its characters belong to Ngozi, I am only expanding upon it for our collective non-commercial pleasure.

“Why am I here again?” Dex whines outside the campus thrift shop, unhappy to be dragged all the way here from the library for an “emergency”, which simply turned out to be Nursey ripping his pants and needing to buy new ones. He doesn’t have any pants to wear anymore.

 

Except Nursey ripped his pants 3 weeks ago, meaning he didn’t do any laundry for the past 3 weeks, and have just been wearing different pants until he ran out. Dex does not deserve to be subject to his roommate’s ridiculous laundry habits and its even more ridiculous consequences. 

 

“Because, we’re gonna double this as our Halloween shopping trip! Two birds one stone.” Nursey replies, entirely too chipper and ignoring the exasperated glare from Dex.

 

“It’s September,” is the stone-cold reply Dex gives.

 

“I like to be prepared,” Nursey supplies without a hint of irony.

 

Dex snorts at that answer. “Says the man who took 3 weeks to buy a new pair of pants because he didn’t do his laundry. Which is piling up in our room, by the way.”

 

“The dryer’s still broken,” Nursey says with a shrug, as he heads into the store, while Dex tries not to yell back at him, “We got a drying rack for a reason!”

 

The thrift shop is empty save for the two of them and the lady at the counter, reading a romance novel with a very muscled, barely-clothed man on the cover. Nursey turns left to the women’s section, and Dex rolls his eyes.

 

“I thought you needed pants.” Dex grumbles, following behind Nursey.

 

“But they’re having sales for summer prints! Can’t say no to sales, can’t say no to summer prints, can’t say no to sales for summer prints.” Nursey elaborates, picking through some very floral leggings. “Leggings are pants, right?”

 

Dex doesn’t dignify that question with an answer, instead letting out a groan and scrubbing a hand down his face. Nursey deliberates on a few leggings before picking out two to try, and then moves on to browse dresses. 

 

 _Dresses! What is Nursey going to do with dresses?_ Dex is getting annoyed, and crosses his arms grumpily, huffing out loud and making his displeasure known, but Nursey just hums softly while perusing the prints, oblivious.

 

After a few minutes of looking through the dresses, pulling some out to hold against his body in front of a mirror nearby, Nursey just puts them all back and moves on. Dex’s attention, however, is caught on the last dress Nursey picked up. It’s a gorgeous summer dress, sleeveless with a form fitting top that opens up beneath the waist to become swishy down at the ankles, giant red roses a foot in diameter adorning the white base and popping between the folds. 

 

Dex swallows and feels... something... like desire, maybe? Something pulling him to the dress, but he tamps it down, turns to follow Nursey to the men’s section, but can’t help turning his gaze back to the dress. It stands out brightly against the other dresses, with its bright white and blood-orange roses creating a hypnotic allure. 

 

When Nursey finally picks out a few pair of pants to try, he catches Dex glancing furtively at the dress. He strides purposefully over back to the women’s section and picks out the dress, turns to give Dex a wink, before scurrying into the changing room. Dex, embarrassed at having been caught, puts his head down as he shuffles his way to the changing room door to wait for Nursey to try on his choices. And the dress.

 

Dex knows that Nursey will emerge behind the door wearing that dress, and he doesn’t know if he can handle that image. He’s trying desperately not to imagine it, so of course he imagines it. Dex sees in his mind Nursey wearing that dress, all flowy around his long legs and tight around his waist and it’s embarrassing how much Dex finds it beautiful. But when his mind moves up towards the torso, Dex pictures something different, something that terrifies him, though his daydreaming is cut short when Nursey pulls open the door to reveal himself, indeed, wearing the dress and leaning seductively. 

 

Nursey waggles his eyebrows and blows a kiss at Dex, who flushes all over. Nursey _does_ look stunning in the dress, his wide shoulders framing the dress and showing his deltoids just right, and the length of the dress draping down his ass and thighs only makes the hidden shapes of his legs more beguiling. He grins and twirls, letting the ends fly up and making Dex feel things at the base of his spine, things he doesn’t want to say out loud.

 

“Do I look good, bro? I could make Ezra Miller run for his money.” Nursey prods at Dex, fishing for compliments and having too much of a good time checking himself out twirling in the mirror. 

 

“Y-yeah, real pretty.” Dex stammers, averting his gave and staring pointedly at the floor. 

 

“Chill! I’m the prettiest in the Haus, it’s settled.” Nursey eats up the praise. “I might actually get this. It _is_ on sale. No idea when I’m gonna wear it, maybe it’ll fit my sister,” he ponders out loud, before shrugging his shoulders to himself and closing the changing room door.

 

He re-emerges from the changing room with his selections of the legging and pants, but the dress is hanging in the room. Dex is still staring at it when Nursey moves to pay, and comes back to nudge Dex after getting them bagged. “Hey, what’s up?”

 

“N-nothing!” Dex’s voice might have cracked there, his denial completely unconvincing. Nursey just cocks an eyebrow at him.

 

They don’t make any moves to leave, Nursey just interrogating Dex with his gaze, and Dex himself avoiding from looking at anything in particular, shifting his eyes and fidgeting, moving his weight from leg to leg.

 

Finally, after a few agonizing minutes, Dex pulls up his courage to confess. “I… you can’t tell anyone, ok?”

 

“Sure, bro, I promise. What’s wrong?” Nursey asks, the concern in his voice at once comforting and fearful.

 

“Nothing’s wrong. It’s just… I- I wanna try on the dress.”

 

Silence erupts for a few beats, and Dex feels like he could disintegrate under Nursey’s judgment.

 

“Oh,” is all Nursey manages, so incredibly soft and tender, and when Dex pushes himself to meet Nursey’s eyes he sees the same tenderness across Nursey’s face. “Go ahead. I’ll wait for you.”

 

Dex only nods, face starting to blush again. This is all so new, he’s never thought to wear a dress, never thought that he’d _want_ to wear a dress. Yet, for some reason, this rose print dress captivated him, and seeing Nursey so casually slip it on and looking like he leapt off a magazine spread unearthed this feeling within Dex. Like he could put on the dress and look desirable, in a different way from his usual solid-athlete-body-in-button-downs look.

 

It takes a while, and Nursey is getting worried, when he hears a tiny voice call out his name. Just that one word, and he feels ready to throw down anything to fight for Dex, because that voice was so timid, so afraid, and Nursey never wants to hear Dex sound like that.

 

“Can you come in here with me?” The door cracks open, and Nursey squeezes himself inside in a flash.

 

Dex has his back to the mirror, and is looking down at his hands clasped tight in front of him, but all Nursey can see is the smattering of freckles that dot his skin, all along his arms. They used to look like light dustings of powder, but under the contrast with the white dress, they look like deep stains, pushing color into Dex’s skin and making his tone pop out. 

 

“I haven’t looked yet. I was scared…” Dex trails off, and Nursey wants to say that Dex looks dazzling, that the blood-orange roses bring out his fiery orange hair and rich amber eyes, that his creeping blush only makes his skin more colorful and bright against the white dress, that the flow and swish of the skirt throws enthralling hints at his leg musculature, even when Dex is still wearing his jeans and sneakers underneath. 

 

Instead, Nursey only puts his hands on Dex’s sholders to pull him upright and stand straight and tall, then gently spins Dex around to face the mirror. Dex slowly, slowly looks up, his bottom lip bitten in worry, until he sees himself and everything shifts.

 

Nursey can see it happen in the reflection, as Dex’s lower lip is released and the edges of his mouth curve up ever so slightly, and his eyebrows lose their furrow. The tension in Dex’s shoulders leak out and they fall back to their relaxed state, while his hands reach down to pull at the skirt and Dex examines the way it falls fluidly from his grip. Nursey simply hangs back and disappears into the opposite wall, letting Dex have his moment.

 

It is a long, divine moment. Dex grows radiant, his soul seeping out of his skin to wrap around the dress and revel in it. He doesn’t twirl, doesn’t move much, just keeps looking at his reflection, but the seed of trepidation in him blooms into this quiet radiant joy, and Nursey basks in it, thankful that he is allowed to share in this moment.

 

Eventually, Dex says that he’s ready to change out and go home, and Nursey exits the changing room to let Dex have his own time to process his feelings with the dress alone. Dex doesn’t take long, simply changing out and back into his clothes, then coming out to hang the dress back on the racks where Nursey first found it.

 

They leave the thrift shop in silence, Nursey walking with his purchases in hand, and Dex by his side. “Thanks.” Dex says out of the blue without preamble, not slowing or pausing his feet, not even looking at Nursey, but he is wearing a look of contentment that warms Nursey up. It’s a rare sight, and Nursey smiles to himself, answering “It’s chill. I’m always here for you, Dex.”

 

Dex quirks up his lips in a faint smile himself, and thinks it was a good day to have left the library for the thrift shop.

**Author's Note:**

> I've seen Nursey as genderfluid and wearing feminine clothing and I'm like, that's cool, but what about Dex? So I put Dex in a dress.
> 
> I’m imagining this dress that is a composite of two dresses my friends have worn. The shape is swishy like this but without the sleeves, from one friend’s dress, and the print of roses is slightly larger than this, all the same size, without the leaves, and the base is pure white is from another friend’s dress. This is the specific blood-orange color I’m thinking of.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Find me on [tumblr](https://ohjustletmewriteinpeace.tumblr.com).


End file.
